We were now among rocks; we climbed cliffs and descended them, and advanced sometimes with our feet on narrow ledges, holding tightly on to other ledges by our fingers; sometimes, cautiously balanced, we moved along edges of rock with precipices on both sides.  Once, in getting round a crag, Lauener shook a book from his pocket; it was arrested by a rock about sixty or eighty feet below us.  He wished to regain it, but I offered to supply its place, if he thought the descent too dangerous.  He said he would make the trial, and parted from me.  I thought it useless to remain idle.  A cleft was before me, through which I must pass; so pressing my knees and back against its opposite sides, I gradually worked myself to the top.  I descended the other face of the rock, and then, through a second ragged fissure, to the summit of another pinnacle.  The highest point of the mountain was now at hand, separated from me merely by a short saddle, carved by weathering out the crest of the mountain.  I could hear Lauener clattering after me, through the rocks behind.  I dropt down upon the saddle, crossed it, climbed the opposite cliff, and “die hoechste Spitze” of Monte Rosa was won.

Lauener joined me immediately, and we mutually congratulated each other on the success of the ascent.  The residue of the bread and meat was produced, and a bottle of tea was also appealed to.  Mixed with a little cognac, Lauener declared that he had never tasted anything like it.  Snow fell thickly at intervals, and the obscurity was very great; occasionally this would lighten and permit the sun to shed a ghastly dilute light upon us through the gleaming vapor.  I put my boiling-water apparatus in order, and fixt it in a corner behind a ledge; the shelter was, however, insufficient, so I placed my hat above the vessel.  The boiling-point was 184.92 deg.  Fahr., the ledge on which the instrument stood being five feet below the highest point of the mountain.

The ascent from the Riffel Hotel occupied us about seven hours, nearly two of which were spent upon the kaemm and crest.  Neither of us felt in the least degree fatigued; I, indeed, felt so fresh, that had another Monte Rosa been planted on the first, I should have continued the climb without hesitation, and with strong hopes of reaching the top.  I experienced no trace of mountain sickness, lassitude, shortness of breath, heart-beat, or headache; nevertheless the summit of Monte Rosa is 15,284 feet high, being less than 500 feet lower than Mont Blanc.  It is, I think, perfectly certain, that the rarefaction of the air at this height is not sufficient of itself to produce the symptoms referred to; physical exertion must be superadded.

MONT BLANC ASCENDED, HUXLEY GOING PART WAY[54]

BY JOHN TYNDALL